Is Belkin Cheating On Reviews?

[laurentio]

Am I not sure how truthful these reports are, but there are allegations being made that Belkin is paying for favourable reviews on Amazon and Newegg websites. What is strange is that the reviewers are being paid .65 cents for a kind review. Over at CrunchGEAR they stated that:I just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good things about Belkin routers.

http://support.bicestercomputers.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=102&stc=1&d=1233448788

Why???
I’m not sure... I sure didn’t mind Belkin routers in the first place and 65 cents isn’t a lot of money for a paragraph. Maybe a flat buck or a USB hub instead? Is false praise really that cheap?

Here is one of the requests on the Mechanical Turk:
Positive review writing.
* Use your best possible grammar and write in US English only
* Always give a 100% rating (as high as possible)
* Keep your entry between 25 and 50 words
* Write as if you own the product and are using it
* Tell a story of why you bought it and how you are using it
* Thank the website for making you such a great deal
* Mark any other negative reviews as “not helpful” once you post yours

Instructions:
The link below leads to a product on a website. Read-through the product’s features and write a positive review for it using the guidelines above to the best of your ability. I have also provided the part number for this product and you can click on the links below to see it on several alternative websites. In order to post some reviews you will need to create an account on the site. You can use your own email address or open a new free webmail account (gmail, yahoo…) and use it to post with.

http://support.bicestercomputers.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=101&stc=1&d=1233448788
This is interesting since it means that Belkin may be trying to cover up the fact that their routers leave much to be desired. I recently wrote about the problems I had with a new Belkin wireless router and how it totally screwed up my Internet connection.
So I have a question. Is there anyone else who had problems with Belkin routers? Let us know.
Comments welcome.
Info Source (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/17/belkin-paying-65-cents-for-good-reviews-on-newegg-and-amazon/)

[blight75]

I must agree that the reviews are bogus… except for any that I make :)

I bought a Belkin N Wireless USB Adapter for my PC a while back (v.1000) and it worked great after calling support and asking how to set it up in Vista. (you apparently had to download an additional driver for the v.1000 model) So I used it and one day the little status light just didn’t light up when plugged in, and my computer didn’t know it was plugged in at all. I plugged it into my Mac and profiler couldn’t find it either.

So I called the tech support and they told me I needed to get it replaced so they shipped me the v.3000 model and I shipped the v.1000 back. It works to this day and I’ve even gotten it to work on my Macs with some magnificent 3rd party software (teehee, right?) but I can never seem to keep the belkin products working like they are supposed to. They always have to be replaced at least once.

On the other hand, my Netgear PC card wireless that I bought in late 2003 (Netgear wasn’t a big name back then so I was sceptical) still works to this day and is faster than the USB one from Belkin. (PC cards are probably faster than USB, I don’t know) I also got a Netgear wireless router but it wouldn’t take the LAN connection from the Belkin switch so we gave it to my uncle and it works there.

Overall, Belkin isn’t a trustworthy company and there are plenty of better companies out there who make better quality products and offer better support for them after the purchase. Belkin isn’t one of my top companies I like to buy stuff from.